


In the Years After

by Whedonista93



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Schmoop, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-30 02:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15087359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: The people of Montinui grow used to the shadow of a demigod over their travels.





	In the Years After

**Author's Note:**

> Assuming Moana was 15 in the movie, years after stemming from that.

1

Maui’s various forms are a familiar sight to the people of Montinui. The voyagers do not fear the shark that grins up at them from just below the surface of the water. They throw fruits high into the air when the giant shadow of a hawk passes over them. The children of the renewed adventurers learn to swim from the back of a giant whale. They laugh when an iguana trips their young chief overboard and into the ocean.

3

When her tribe asks her if Maui will ever show himself in human form, Moana only smiles mysteriously and makes for the nearest mountain or forest trail every time they make landfall.

“This is one of my islands, you know,” Maui’s voice comes from behind her as soon as she’s out of sight from the tribe’s camp.

Moana doesn’t turn around, but does smirk as the demigod falls into step with her. “Really? It’s… smaller, than all the others you’ve claimed.”

Maui growls and jostles her gently. “I don’t _always_ show off, you know.”

Moana’s answering, “I know,” is almost too quiet.

Maui stops her with a gentle hand on her arm. “I’ll show up around them. Like this. If you want me to.”

Moana finally looks at him and shakes her head. “Only if you actually want to.” She shrugs. “I like having someone who doesn’t expect anything from me.”

He smiles down at her. “Me too.”

5

Moana tries to sneak away when they land, but weak with fever as she is, Sina easily catches her and forces her onto a mat in a tent set up under she shade of the nearby trees. Her mother finally leaves for her own tent late that night, but only after Moana promises to stay on her cot and rest and not try sneaking off.

Five minutes after she’s alone, Maui flashes into his human form and settles his back against the tent’s center support pole.

“If you knock it over, you’re fixing it,” Moana mumbles at him without opening her eyes.

He chuckles. “Sure thing, princess.”

“Not a princess.”

“Whatever you say.”

She finally cracks an eye open at him. “Why’re you being so nice?”

He shrugs. “Humans seem to think it’s necessary when someone is sick.”

She glares at him, clearly disbelieving, a few moments longer before attempting to shrug and closing her eyes again.

Sometime later, he’s shaking her shoulder urgently.

She shoots up abruptly, immediately regretting the action as it jars her already throbbing head.

Maui sets a steadying hand on her back and offers her a bowl of water with the other. “Easy, princess, you were starting to thrash. Didn’t want you to hurt yourself. Water. Drink.”

Moana doesn’t even think of questioning him as she drinks the bowl greedily before falling back and screwing her eyes shut again. He continues to wake her throughout the night to make her drink and check her coherency.

The third time, she blinks up at him blearily. “Maui?”

“Yeah, princess?”

She pokes the mini-Moana on his chest. “Why ’m I over your heart?”

Maui shrugs lightly. “Where else would you be?”

She cocks her head. “You’ve said I’m a pain in the ass.”

He barks out a sharp laugh. “You think you should be on my ass?”

She shrugs.

He shakes his head. “You’re right where you belong. Go back to sleep.”

She leans her heated forehead against his chest. “‘kay.”

She drifts off like that, and he doesn’t settle her back until he’s certain she’s asleep again. Only then does he look over at the figure who had appeared at the tent flap. He meets Sina’s eyes steadily. Eventually, she seems to find whatever she’s looking for in his face and nods before retreating.

When Moana wakes in the morning, her fever has broken and she looks at him in clear confusion. “Maui?”

He grins easily. “Princess.”

She sits up gingerly and he resists the urge to reach out and help her - she wouldn’t welcome it when she’s coherent.

“You aren’t gonna throw up on me, are you?”

She scrunches her nose. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugs easily. “You couldn’t make it off the boat by yourself, much less into the woods. Figured I’d come to you for once.”

6

“Everyone really downplays how much these tattoos hurt,” Moana pouts a bit, craning her neck and poking gingerly at her freshly inked shoulders.

Maui rolls his eyes. “It’s not that bad.”

Moana throws a coconut at his head.

“Uh, ow.”

“Yours just appear, Maui. You’ve never had to suffer this the human way.”

Maui shrugs nonchalantly. “Alright, turn around, let’s see it.”

Moana blushes darkly and looks at her feet.

Maui quints suspiciously. “Alright, seriously now princess.”

Moana huffs a breath and knots her hair up on her head before turning slowly. Covering the entire top portion of her back and disappearing into her top, is giant hawk.

Maui nods with a small, sincere smile. “Very nice, Mo.”

Moana glances at him over her shoulder. “No snide comments?”

He shrugs lightly. “Maybe later.”

7

Moana faces the man kneeling across from her with an expression that would be serious if not for the amusement shining in her eyes.

“Marry me.”

Moana and Pau hold each other’s gaze seriously and silently for a full minute before they both double over laughing. Neither notices the beetle fleeing the windowsill in the silence of that minute.

Moana recovers herself first. “That was awful!”

“I couldn’t do that with a straight face in front of the council.” Pau wipes a tear from his eye. “Can you imagine us married?”

Moana shudders. “I don’t understand why the council thinks I need to get married to anyone in the first place.”

Pau shakes a fist in the air self-righteously. “Carry on the chief’s line!”

Moana rolls her eyes. “I’m 22. I’ve got time.”

“You’re already an old maid according to them.”

“They’re so old-fashioned sometimes! Maybe I won’t ever get married.”

“Out of spite or because you don’t know how to court a demigod?” Pau asks, an all too-knowing gleam in his eye.

Moana blushes furiously and ships her gaze around. “Shut up! He could be anywhere!”

Pau shakes his head at her. “I don’t get why you don’t just tell him.”

Moana shrugs and plucks at her skirt. “He’s a demigod. I’m just a human.”

Pau quirks a dark brow at her. “A human who convinced him to face a full god head on. The _only_ human he actually speaks to. A human who the gods themselves tattooed _over his heart_ , if your story is to be believed.”

Moana glares.

Pau’s expression softens. “Easy, Moana. I don’t mean to tease. I’m just saying…”

10

It’s been 3 years since Moana has seen hide or hair of Maui, and her people know she’s worried. He wasn’t around at all times before, but after months, the worry grew more apparent in the tense line of the young chief’s shoulders with every passing day.

Tui finds her staring out over the waves as the sun rises. “Go.”

She looks at him curiously, but doesn’t try to play dumb. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Yes, you do,” her father chides gently.

“Te Fiti is a long journey from here.”

Tui shrugs. “I am not yet an old man. I can lead our people again for a time while their chief finds where her heart ran off to.”

Moana’s gaze turns sharp.

Her father laughs. “I am no more blind than I am old, daughter, and it seems to be your destiny to chase a heart thief across the waters.”

She has no answer to that, so she just wraps her arms around him tightly. She sails with the morning tide.The journey to Te Fiti is long, and without her Maui, or even Heihei, lonely. She keeps her sanity only thanks to the occasional visit from Tala.

“Gramma!”

Tala chuckles. “Long way past the reef again.”

Moana shrugs and her lips quirk wryly.

“After your errant demigod again?”

“He’s not _my_ anything.”

Tala cackles madly. “You just keep telling yourself that.”

“Gramma,” Moana protests.

Tala pats her cheek. “You are his heart, Moana, and he is ever at your back.”

Moana rolls her eyes. “Then why did he go and disappear on me?”

Her grandmother smiles mysteriously, and jerks her chin over her shoulder.

Moana follows the gesture and beams. “Te Fiti!”

She reaches the island as the sun rises, and Te Fiti greets her with a warm smile.

Moana rests her brow against the goddess’ when Te Fiti lifts her. “I come to ask a favor, my lady.”

Te Fiti quirks an eyebrow and casts a barely there glance to the side.

Moana catches sight of the iguana hunkered under a nearby bush. Moana bows deeply. “Te Fiti, I come to seeking the shapeshifter Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of all.”

The iguana hunkers further into the shadow of the bush.

“He kind of abandoned me, and the only reason I can think of for that is some monster finally getting the better of him.”

Maui burst out from under the bush in human form. “As if any monster could defeat Maui!”

Moana stands up straight and turns to him, clearly unimpressed. “Better have a good reason for ditching me, then.”

Maui suddenly looks sheepish and becomes very interested in the dirt at his feet.

“Maui,” Moana practically growls, “you left me alone.”

“I left you with your husband,” Maui retorts.

Moana freezes. “What?”

“I was there, okay? The night he asked you to marry him. I wasn’t going to risk standing in the way of your life.”

Moana knows before she does it that it’s probably the worst possible reactions she can give him, but she doubles over laughing. The expression on Te Fiti’s face indicates she agrees.

“Tell me, I’m wrong!” Maui nearly snarls.

Moana collects herself and looks him dead in the eye. “You’re wrong.”

“I sa-”

“You saw one of my best friends from childhood make a joke at the expense of my old fashioned council and if you would have stayed 30 seconds longer, you would have seen us both fall over laughing. Pau is like a brother.”

“So I-”

“Abandoned me for no reason? Yeah.”

Maui flinches.

“I know you, Maui. You can’t tell me you haven’t been lonely.”

He tries to shrug it off. “I’m used to it.”

Moana stomps her foot - a habit of temper she’s never quite managed to kick. “You didn’t have to be anymore!”

Maui kicks at the dirt. “You’re gonna be gone one of these days, Mo.”

Moana’s temper evaporates. “I know. I’m sorry. I wish… Maui, I wish more than anything I could stay with you.”

A swirl of green leaves and light catches Moana in a whirlwind before Maui can respond. “Moana!”

Moana lands on the ground next to Maui, breathless, and clutching a paddle with a heart and hook carved into it, etchings that match Maui’s hook covering the handle. Her left arm is covered in a new tattoo depicting the restoral of the heart of Te Fiti. An inhuman voice drifts through the air. _The gods honor Moana, demigoddess of the sands and the stars_.

Maui pulls Moana to her feet and they both gape up at Te Fiti, who simply nods and smiles, before gracefully laying down.

Moana recovers her voice first, preceded by a nervous laugh. “Uh… so, what was that about me being gone one of these days?”

Maui stares, then laughs and lets out a loud, “Cheeehooo!” before scooping Moana into his arms spinning her through the air. He kisses her as he sets her back on her feet. Then he freezes and pulls back. “Uh, I didn’t mean to… I mean… I’m sorry, I, uh-”

Moana rolls her eyes and yanks his face back down to her level to kiss him again.

He looks down at her dazedly when she pulls back. “Mo? You, uh…”

She smiles. “Would I really sail all the way to Te Fiti looking for you if I didn’t, you stubborn jerk?”

His returning smile is hesitant. “Me too.”

Moana rests her forehead against his with the barest nod. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out. Sorry it took me so long.”

Maui shrugs. “Looks like we’ve got forever now.”


End file.
